During the nascent years of football in the city, rugby players, cricketers, runners and cyclists tried their hand at the new association game. Some enjoyed it so much that they decided to form committees with likeminded friends, family members and work colleagues and play matches against other newly formed elevens on many of the main public recreation green spaces. Fierce rivalries were forged on these grounds and huge crowds would gather to watch these battles play out turning the parks into open air theatres. Baxter Park and Magdalen Green, in particular, were the birth places of some of the city’s best known football clubs and scenes of some of the most memorable matches of the Corinthian era of football in Juteopolis. Some of the more successful, better known clubs would take part in the Scottish Cup and play host to some illustrious out of town clubs in friendly challenge matches, perhaps now able to charge entrance fees to spectators on some rented private ground. For the best part of a decade this was enough. In 1883 Forfarshire followed other counties across Scotland by forming an FA and subsequently implemented local cup competitions – city rivalries took on an additional, lucrative competitive edge – soon enough other tournaments followed. One such tournament was the Northern League. This competition was created in 1891 as a local response to the national Scottish League, formed in 1890, in which no club from Perthshire, Forfarshire or Aberdeen was represented. On the 14th of March 1891 the then Forfarshire FA president, Mr Harry Bryan (of Arbroath FC), chaired a meeting made up of representatives of Our Boys, East End, Dundee Harp and Johnstone Wanderers of Dundee; Fair City Athletic and St. Johnstone of Perth; Arbroath, Forfar Athletic and Montrose of Forfarshire; Aberdeen, Victoria United and Orion of Aberdeen. The latter three clubs would eventually come together in 1903 to form the present Aberdeen FC. The purpose of this meeting was to agree to the proposed 12 team league and a committee made up of representatives of each burgh (Arbroath, Montrose, Forfar, Dundee, Perth and Aberdeen) were tasked with drawing up the new competition's constitution. The next meeting in Dundee on the 4th April 1891 was for the new constitution to be voted in and was attended by a large number of people. The first point- setting the number of league members to 12 was defeated. The proposal for only 8 clubs was voted in by 16 votes to 7. This, of course, meant that 4 of the clubs had to be removed from the initial line-up. It was decided that Aberdeen and Perth should each only have one team. Aberdeen (17 votes) was chosen to represent the north over Orion (5 votes) and Victoria United (2 votes) while St. Johnstone (13 votes) were chosen over Fair City Athletic (6 votes). It seems Our Boys and East End's positions were never in question as "Dundee's third club" was between Dundee Harp (14 votes) and Johnstone Wanderers (6 votes). Thus the line-up was:
Arbroath
Forfar
Montrose
Aberdeen
St. Johnstone
Our Boys
East End
Dundee Harp
The office bearers were - President: Mr Doig (St. Johnstone); Vice President: Mr Stewart (Aberdeen); Treasurer: Mr Smith (Montrose) & Secretary: Mr A. Williamson (Our Boys). The first league campaign kicked-off in season 1891-92. This season saw strong teams in the form of East End, Our Boys and Montrose, but East End were impressive this year, almost sweeping the board of local tournaments. In the Forfarshire Cup East End lost to Montrose in the final in a hard-fought game. East End, as they often did, lodged a protest at Montrose's late arrival, but this was thrown out. In the Dundee Charity Cup, another epic final brought joy in the form of a 3-2 win over Our Boys. This just left the Northern League. So, it must have been gratifying for East End to edge out main challengers Montrose 2-1 at Carolina Port in a vital league game. However, it would seem East End fielded an ineligible player, and the match was ordered to be replayed. East End were furious and even got their solicitor involved- a Mr D. M. Anderson- who wrote that his clients refused to replay their game as the league "wrongously disqualified" them. Furthermore, he was ready to instigate legal proceedings to have the trophy delivered to East End but has decided to first submit the point to the committee for arbitration. So, what was the committee's decision on this serious matter? "It was all but unanimously decided to take no notice of the letter" So that was that then. East End were docked 2 points (the points they won in that Montrose game) and therefore ended the season on the same points as Our Boys who finished the season strongly and, in doing so, overtook Montrose who finished poorly. By failing to replay the game East End had to share the title with Our Boys - nothing clearly came of their solicitor's proceedings. That historic first table:
*East End & St Johnstone deducted two points for fielding ineligible players.
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